• Posted By landismom @ 1/11/2006 08:31:00 PM • • •
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
finally, some good news!
If you're a relatively new reader of my blog, you'll have missed these posts, which dealt with our frustrations with the Bee's kindergarten teacher last spring. I found out today that Mrs. X is retiring.
I managed not to do a happy dance of joy in the school library, because I thought it would be unseemly. But I was doing it on the inside.
You cannot possibly imagine how happy I am that the Potato will not have to have her as a teacher.
It's funny, because I had just been having a conversation with my neighbor, whose son is in kindergarten this year, about how much he likes kindergarten and how happy she has been with Mrs. X. I spent a lot of time last year scaring her with stories about Mrs. X, and I think she was mostly relieved that her son escaped those experiences. Mrs. X plays favorites, so I'm not terribly surprised that she has treated this woman's son well--I never thought she was awful to everyone, just to the Bee and one or two other kids.
And I realize that running a full-day kindergarten class of 24 kids is a challenge for even the best teacher. Mrs. X only has a half-day aide, and is by herself for the rest of the day. I'm sure that, were I in her position, I'd run screaming after a week. On the other hand, I know my own strengths and weaknesses pretty well, and I'd never put myself in that position.
I had a lot of trepidation when the Bee entered first grade this year. I was worried that the problems that she had in kindergarten were all about her--that somehow, she wasn't mature enough for school, or something. Those fears have proved largely groundless, and she's doing great. She never had academic issues, it was all about behavior, and we haven't gotten one bad behavioral report this year, even after some probing. Clearly, there was bad blood between her and Mrs. X (and me and Mrs. X, I can't leave that out). It's amazing how much pressure it can put on you as a parent, to think that your kid is struggling in school.
Now, I have two things to be happy about. The first is that the Bee's current teacher is great, and the Bee is learning a lot! It's amazing to me that such a turnaround could occur in just a year. And the second is that I can stop worrying about having to sit through another parent-teacher conference with Mrs. X ever again!
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